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ACP Priorities Take Center Stage at AMA House of Delegates Meeting

Dec. 21, 2018 (ACP)—Physicians attending the recent American Medical Association
House of Delegates Interim Meeting took on a range of issues central to the American
College of Physician's advocacy agenda, including firearms safety, better funding
for patient-centered medical homes, gender discrimination, and sexual harassment.

The AMA House of Delegates (HoD) passed a resolution calling for better a background-check
system for firearms purchases, a ban on 3D-printed firearms and gun violence restraining
orders for people arrested or convicted of domestic violence or stalking, all of which
are consistent with the ACP's updated position paper on curbing firearms violence,
published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“As physicians, we all know the terrible public health toll of firearms injuries
and deaths,” Dr. Ana María López, ACP's president, told ACP
members attending the Internal Medicine Caucus at the HoD meeting. “Improving
public health, and doing what we can to avoid preventable injuries, is absolutely
the purview of physicians.”

Per AMA practice, all resolutions submitted for consideration at the Interim Meeting
will be reviewed by the association's Resolution Committee.

The issue of sexual harassment created a heated discussion at the Interim Meeting
after a woman said she had been sexually harassed at an AMA HoD meeting and that her
complaints had gone unaddressed.

“This caused great distress and discussion, and the House passed an emergency
resolution that seeks to strengthen the existing anti-discrimination policy for investigating
and adjudicating claims,” said Dr. Donna Sweet, vice chair of ACP's AMA delegation.

The resolution directs the AMA to “engage independent, outside consultants
to examine and make recommendations that could improve the process for addressing
any future claims of harassment.”

On patient-centered medical homes, considered the cornerstone of patient-centered
high-quality care, AMA delegates noted that creating and sustaining this model requires
support from payers, but that hasn't been as robust as was hoped, Sweet said.

“A resolution passed at the meeting urges the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services to assist and advocate that all payers support transforming and maintaining
the PCMH model,” she said.

Delegates also passed a resolution that calls for taking a deeper dive into patterns
linked to physician and medical student suicide – looking beyond long work
hours into other factors that may be a reason, Sweet said.

“We need to work harder to understand physicians' mental health, especially
student, resident, and young physician suicide,” she said.

Also at the AMA meeting, held Nov. 8-13 in National Harbor, Md., just outside Washington,
D.C., the House of Delegates voted to:

Work to inform officials about the medical spectrum of gender identity and oppose
any efforts to deny individuals' right to determine their stated sex marker or gender
identity.

Foster diversity among physician leaders in public and population health, which Sweet
said dovetails with a paper – “Achieving Gender Equity in Physician
Compensation and Career Advancement” – that ACP released last spring.
In it, ACP supported efforts to eliminate gender inequities in compensation and called
for career advancement opportunities for females in the internal medicine field.

Increase awareness and research needed into intimate partner violence against LGBTQ
people.

“It was a very positive meeting in terms of putting patients first and making
sure equity is sought after and achieved, and that things like gender discrimination
and harassment continue to be discussed and hopefully averted,” Sweet said.